


Music and Ink

by liternee109



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies)
Genre: Art, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Inspired by Fanart, M/M, Music, Other, a year in the life, fractals, paint, snippits
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-19 23:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9465392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liternee109/pseuds/liternee109
Summary: Between the everyday hectic that is their jobs, Bond and Q find some *relative* peace with each other in home.or the OOQ "Year in the Life" domestic fluff fic





	1. January

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Only_1_Truth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Only_1_Truth/gifts).



> I was given a LOVELY picture prompt by the talented Truth. This pic was so peaceful and calming that it inspired a year of 00Q Fluff and shenanigans. It also reminded me how much I love fractals and gave me a way to show how much music is integral into everything for me. 
> 
> This has become an ode to art and Fractals and music and the awesomeness of them all and of brilliant minds and has been an amazing reason for me to geek out.
> 
> This would not exist without an awesome cheering squad, love you all. Special shout out to Boredpsychopath-jc and Opalescentgoald who both fielded all the snippits being spammed into their tumblrs. Also thanks to Deathwish-koala, a-forger-and-a-point-man, therealpigfarts23, monologues91and everyone else who let me use them as a sounding board and gave encouragement.

 

It was snowing outside the window, rather slushing, but inside was warm and content. The apartment, and everyone in it, was ready for a new year, a new start, another cycle of ups and downs to begin. Although it was already the third week in January, it was the first time Bond had been home with down time, not bothering to think about anything outside of this bubble of cuddly cats and a very content Q.

Bond tried to stifle a quiet huff of laughter as Q’s brush hit a ticklish spot on his ribs. Q had kept it simple tonight, only pulling out the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow to play with as he turned Bond’s scarred back into a different masterpiece than it usually was. He had been extra accommodating and even handed the music controls to Bond as he set up his brushes and put down a dirty old ratty blanket underneath them as a spill guard. That had been at least an hour ago. An hour filled with quiet music piped into one ear through shared headphones and the feel of Q at his back. The cool touch of the paint felt good against his skin and the quiet noises Q made in time with the music or in regards to something he had just painted were sounds that Bond cherished with all his heart. 

His thoughts turned back to the task in hand, his only task for the night; to keep the music flowing and to stay relatively still. Bond has already queued up the next song and was waiting to Q’s response. His thoughts wandered over the past few times he's been in this exact situation, and wouldn't want to be anywhere else secure in the knowledge this would not be the last night like this.

As the opening trumpet melody started filtering in there was a chuckle from behind though there was no pause in the brushstrokes across Bond’s back.

 

~

 

Q didn’t even bother trying to hide his smile and laugh as the opening beat started. The song danced its way into the room lead the trumpet. Bond did love his jazz and Duke Ellington was one of the best. By the time the trumpet had wound down and the opening words were sung the trumpet had already lightened Q’s spirit and he was picking up the blue paintbrush. 

“ _ It makes no difference if it's sweet or hot, just keep that rhythm give it everything you got _ ”

As Q added some blue to the Bond’s shoulder blades he noticed that his and Bond’s feet were tapping to the beat. It reminded him of the first time them had done something similar to wind down after Bond had gotten home.

 

_ Q was at his computer designing a new fractal with this own code. He knew that Bond had landed safely at Heathrow, he knew that Bond had not stopped by Six, but he did not know if Bond was going to stew in his alcohol and bruises or if he would take Q up on his offer of companionship after a long mission. _

_ This wasn’t the first time that Bond was at his flat but it would be the first time he trusted his post-mission self to anyone else. Q wasn't naive, he knew he wasn’t Bond’s one and only, or some foolish notion like that. Bond would always be Bond, living life to the fullest and staring Death in the face as much as he possibly could then chasing down the encounter with good drinks and better lays. Q understood that, but he would consider himself a true friend of Bond’s by this point. Friends look after each other and if they became anything more than they would set the rules and go from there together. _

_ But first, Bond had to actually trust Q with his post-mission self. Q knew what a big step that would be, he knew how much self loathing Bond covered up with his charm. So instead of sending himself into an anxiety attack, he retreated in his numbers, his beautiful numbers, that could imitate nature and be wondrous and just for fun. Very rarely did Q allow himself frivolity, but writing the creation of fractals himself was one of those times that he could turn his brain to the combination of numbers and code and get something beautiful and completely useless as a result; he cherished that greatly. _

_ Plus, to be quite honest, it wasn’t pure frivolity. His recent look at the interns’ new work did prove that his Erlang needed refreshing. What’s a better way to test his own mastery over a language than to code a fractal in it. It did all boil down to one function, that was the fun of the Algebraic fractal; one equation computed and plotted over and over again to create a gorgeous product. It wasn’t just one program he needed but three, and the function the fractal was to be computed from after all. Once he had his function he wrote to write the first program, to evaluate the function into useful data points. 3D coordinates computed for a 2D plot with the 3rd dimension relating to color. _

_ The second program came in next using that information; a program with a color map that turned the outputs of the function, the z coordinates, into colors. Those two programs were of Q’s creation. Once those were finished, the third program, that connected the first two and resulted in an image, was old hat and not even worth writing. There were pre-existing programs that were open source and easy enough to grab and combine with his coding. Q was more interested in refreshing his knowledge of useful computation through Erlang. _

_ Q had been so engrossed in the music and coding at the time that he missed the initial door chime and was startled by his phone buzzing and alerting him of a visitor. Bond had swept into the apartment all full of charm and shed his jacket before petting the cats. As he picked up one of them and joined Q on the couch Bond’s attention had turned to what was on the screen. Q had been troubleshooting his colormap; something was wrong in the actual compiling of the fractal. On the screen was the colormap; a huge table of relations and numbers and colors and code, and Bond had seemed entranced at first before a startled chuckle left his chest. _

_ The talk flowed easily after that and Q had been surprised, but not really, to learn that Bond was in fact familiar with fractals and even knew some ways they were useful such as in simulation imagery.  _

_ Q didn’t quite remember what started it but by the end of the conversation they were both comfortably sat on the couch with Q drawing on the back of Bond’s hand. There had been a felt tip pen nearby the couch and the fractal discussion proved inspirational. Bond ended the night with calm written over his face and a Sierpinski Triangle written on the back of his hand. _

 

Q thought back to that night fondly as he finished the last stroke over Bond’s back.  Bond never would have been able to sit still post-mission with his back towards anyone for that long that first night. They had come so far and Q never took it for granted. He was about to take a picture for Bond and offer to help him wash it off when his cell phone rang “Moneypenny” showing up on the screen. 

Just one look at Q was all it took for Bond to reach across the floor for Q’s abandoned laptop. “I’ll go shower this off so that I am ready if you need to send me back out anywhere.”

By the time Bond had closed the washroom door Q already had the phone on speaker and was typing away at his computer running diagnostics while Moneypenny caught him up to the current state of affairs. 


	2. Febuary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you sooooo much to everyone that has helped cheer lead me and dealt with me writing this fic completely out of order. Special thanks to boredpsychopath-jc and dysfunctional-college-roomates for the betas.

Q closed the flat’s door behind himself with a wistful look around the living room. Instead of the paints and Ipod music and most importantly the man he was hopelessly wishing for, there were blankets and cats and tea mugs. It was now into the last week of February and Bond had been gone since the 5th.

He had been gone since the 5th, but the last night they’d been able to relax together had been the last paint night in January. That night had been cut short by Q being called in to manage a nasty situation that was supposed to be an easy mission. Once that had gotten under control, an email had been sent to Q with Bond’s next assignment so that Q could decide the gear he would need. This separation was nothing new, but going home alone got old after awhile as well.

As Q prepared tea and some simple supper, he caught himself humming club music under his breath, damn coms picking up the background music. The signal reception had been quite clear, which had made Q very happy though. He preferred the originally-recorded versions, not the club remixes. The distortion of perfectly good singing was something that had never made sense to Q. He connected his phone to the speakers and played the original Alessia Cara album through the speakers as he finished dinner, collected his cup of tea and settled into the couch, surrounded by the smell of dinner, cuddly cats, and no less than three fleece blankets. He hoped Bond was at least having a stress-free night overseas if not a relaxing one.

~

Bond walked through his hotel room door after a short 5k run to work off some of his restless energy down in the gym. He hated waiting; he was bored; he wanted the mission to be over already. The Americans don’t know how to be bloody _professionals,_ so instead of having Q snarking in his ear stopping him from blowing something up out of boredom, he was on the equivalent of Q branch hold. He wasn’t even in America, because government officials saw this mission as a chance to show international relations were at a high.

Bond was looking forward to an harrassed and muttering Q listing all the reasons the US should be absorbed back into the empire so they can be efficient and useful again.

The run hadn’t been a complete waste, Bond was finally able to identify that song that had been stuck in his head since the stake out of the club the night before. The gym had music playing through the speakers and Bond was able to figure out why the club version had seemed weird. He had heard it before, with Q, back in England. Not the cover version though, the original that he heard in the gym. Alessia Cara, as soon as the melody Bond was familiar with had started he knew who it had been.

 

_Q and Bond had started a tradition of trading music selections, as well as trading movie selection privileges. Q could only take so much of Bond’s criticism of characters because “no one would ACTUALLY do that. I would know, I have been stuck with incredibly stupid people, Q.” Bond had had the mood of too many calm, cuddly evenings break down because Q had seen something that was so inaccurate he wanted to prove it wrong - or worse, something that defied the laws of nature “but what if… ooo if you adjusted this instead of that, and then focused on the…” They had worked out over time which movies were better to watch when the other wasn’t around and when winning the argument of who got to pick really wasn’t worth it. Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, the music situation of the apartment was settled much easier._

_Both of them lived in such loud worlds, between explosions (planned or not), fellow employees, the dreaded management and just general background noise of multiple people in one place. They were not accustomed to silence. They had both made peace with the fact that work life was unpredictable and they only had so much control (or the allusion of) over it, but they had both developed a great appreciation for music. In their down time, they could decide the noise that filled their life._

_Once Bond and Q had started being around each other outside of work more, the suggestion to share music with each other had come naturally. Q felt so content when he could tell that Bond truly liked something and wasn’t just trying to please him. Q knew his tells, after all.  Bond became very familiar with the gleam in Q’s eyes as he listened to something new that meant by the next day that artist's entire discography would be on his server. Bond had even heard some new versions from Q diving into the records of online music community._

_This particular evening, Q had chosen modern female vocalists that had that certain something that wasn’t as common anymore. That was the first time Bond had heard Alessia Cara’s voice. The personality-filled voice and meaningful lyrics had lured Bond into becoming a fan. Q, who was the opposite of subtle, had started the playlist with a song titled “Scars to Your Beautiful.” If Bond had been hyper-aware of his age and everything that he had put his body through over the years for Queen and country lately, well Q knew better than to say anything. He let the music speak for him._

_There's a hope that's waiting for you in the dark_

_You should know you're beautiful just the way you are_

_And you don't have to change a thing_

_The world could change its heart_

_No scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful_

 

_After that the playlist had cycled through some other artists before, another song by Alessia Cara started again. About halfway through the song Bond had found himself as entranced as the song earlier.-_

_Let go_

_I let my voice be heard, then listen for the echo_

_My own reverb is playing_

_Cause I'm a movement_

_There's dissonance, sometimes I make mistakes_

_So I'm human after all, I'm not your expectations_

_But play, rest, repeat, that's what they ask of me_

_Just stick to this melody and stay between the lines_

_But I'll play what's best for me_

_I'll ring the bells and crash the cymbals_

_My harmonious desire_

_That night Bond had ended up with his head in Q’s lap with his hair being ruffled. Bond very rarely had let Q blatantly take care of him in the early days, but no one could make Bond feel as calm or as settled in his own self as Q. Q knew all of his flaws, knew of his strengths, knew of his past, and he was still there. Q was always there, just as Bond had vowed long ago he would never let anything happen to Q._

 

Bond stepped out of the shower with a smile on his face. He would have to make sure he made a good playlist for Q for when the mission was over. Until then Bond was going to keep reminiscing and listening to the music that reminded him of Q’s love and friendship.

Find table space to say your social graces

Bow your heads, they're pious here, but you and I, we're pioneers

We make our own rules, our own room, no bias here

Let 'em sell what they are sellin', there are no buyers here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All lyrics are credit to Alessia Cara. The three songs: Scars to Your Beautiful, My Song, Wild Things


	3. March

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much love and thanks to dysfunctional-college-roomates, therealpigfarts23, and boredpsychopath-jc for the betas!
> 
> I had a lot of fun trying to engineer Q branch sheningans that could pass management reivew. I hope you enjoy as well.

Bond was glad to be home and there was nothing he enjoyed more than riling up Q when he was trying to think, but seriously, why ask Bond for pranks and sabotage ideas if you weren’t going to allow half his tactics? Yes, Bond was  _ aware  _ that this preparation was for the yearly prank war of Q branch. Bond was  _ also  _ aware that debriefing of 00’s and especially conversations between himself and 006 were used when creating and updating the guidelines and rules of said prank war. It was for “ingenuity” after all, not destruction. Bond himself had been told that many times by former and current M’s as well as both Q’s predecessor and Q himself. 

Bond had been very happy the previous year when the competition resulted in both a new breathable flame resistant cloth and a hand-held lighter with self-replacing fuel. Last year’s theme had started out as joke Zombie Apocalypse Survival kits, but then no one was surprised when Q branch managed to make useful technology. It was refreshing to go back to basic mechanical products; the fact the agents now had non-internet-based back-up gear that was as small and light as their tech gear was just a plus. The blurry line between being prepared and being too paranoid was only a problem for the Psych Department; every successful agent knew how to be resourceful, but also knew preparation, when the situation permitted it, was essential. 

Really, Q should have known better than to expect to get reasonable Health and Safety suggestions from Bond. But then maybe he was just updating his rules and guidelines. The senior agents knew better than to get involved in the actual competition and potentially get on the wrong side of the boffins that protected their lives in the field all the time. No one on record had  _ died _ per se from underestimating and pissing of a Q branch employee, but there was always water cooler talk about how asshole agents just happened to be going through a period of malfunctioning phone services. Nothing ever malfunctioned while on a mission, but no one wanted faulty entertainment devices on a long plane ride back.  It was easier to just watch the mess unfold, let the geeks rule and have their fun, and the reap the rewards of their “for fun” innovation. 

Q, on the other hand, had not been able to fully  _ enjoy  _ the yearly innovation since he became the head of Q branch and inherited the role of creating all the contingency plans of said innovation  _ prank _ war. Bond was betting that only around twenty percent of Q’s potential fears would be worked on by agents over the course of the month. Granted, even that would require lots of oversight from Q making sure no one was  _ actually _ hurt and no one-of-a-kind prototypes were completely destroyed without contingency plans in place. Last year, one of the stipulations was that training on the devices had to occur without any use of internet or wall powered technology. No video trainings, no resourceful websites, just printed instruction manuals. One of the tests was giving the equipment and the booklet to junior agents and watching what happened. If these were for a true zombie apocalypse then the power grid would be fractured, that was one of the base assumptions.

Bond had a lot of admiration for how Q ran his department. Q expected a lot from his employees, but he also knew them and realized their potential. To prepare for what could go wrong over the next month, as well as to prepare for the innovations that could actually work, Q had assembled different team options. He also had kept track of who would be working outside of their abilities and making sure the groups had both junior and senior participation. He was already planning contingencies, as well as ways to use these as learning experiences for his department as a whole. He also had been able to keep this year’s theme from Bond. Bond had a lot of admiration for how Q really could keep a secret when he wanted to. He of course had fun trying to get the theme out of Q, but it was more a game. There was trust that had been hard fought for and won in the relationship, and both knew their limits when it came to teasing and secrets.

Q had also catalogued all current rules, official and unspoken, while cross-checking them against the bigger, barely-missed disasters the year before to see if anything needed to be amended. Bond was having fun with Q talking about the potential mishaps, but Bond also knew that Q had done all he could to prepare in advance.  Q knew Bond wouldn’t actually leave out a potential disaster or bad rule just because it would be fun to watch the aftermath. Bond and Q worked well together in and out of the office, which was imperative for both of them with jobs that were so integral to their lives in general. Bond admired how Q cared so much about his work, and about the affected personnel, that he would spend evenings going over guidelines, and compiling an office wiki with some “basic reminders and tutorials” of common errors that could make the difference between something working or not. He used his own experience to help guide his department, who in turn provided the agents with tools and guidance needed for successful missions and longer lives.

 

~

 

Q watched Bond’s amused fond smile grow serious from across the living room and knew that the past innovation challenges and stories were no longer going through Bond’s head. He got like this sometimes and Q knew not to leave him, but also to let him work through whatever it was currently on his mind. They had worked together and been together in enough dire situations as well as domestic ones that Bond would ask Q for help or distraction if needed. 

With Bond lost in thought, Q went back to the task at hand and going though this year’s theme as well as rules. As a reminder that Bond was always appreciated and cared for, Q made sure to put on the latest Playlist that had showed up in his mailbox after a particularly long night of surveillance the month before. He had known one was coming soon after Alessia Cara lyrics were texted to his phone that same night. Q still thought of it as a huge victory when he introduced Bond to new music that was loved.  Q had been very surprised at the songs that made it onto this list, but then they were overall calming and Q had been in dire need of calm by the end of that mission. As he zoned back into the task at hand, this year’s theme, Ed Sheeran filled the room.

_ When I was six years old I broke my leg _

_ I was running from my brother and his friends _

_ And tasted the sweet perfume of the mountain grass as I rolled down _

Detection, everyone always worries about undetectable gear but how long has it been since Q has let his branch run free on detecting just about anything, even their own gear? Q branch employees were, under aliases of course, part of almost all the hacker contests in the world. The results of those White Hat hacking challenges and games of capture the flag were always talking points around the office. It had been a while since all of Q branch and only Q branch had played Capture the Flag. The hacking was only part of the overall game and theme. Once the “flag was caught” or hacked and decoded in this case, then the true games would start between teams.

So this year would be teams after all. He could set it up as parallel to their normal work. Each team would be designated either red teams or blue teams. The red teams would try to stay undiscovered in whatever their anti detection game was and the blue teams would try to call them on all their exploits before the month was over. The military may have coined the terms for red teams and blue teams but hackers all over the world had managed to make the terms their own.

Q had a peremptory list of the teams to run by Tanner and he already had a random number generator all set to assign the different designations to each team. There were some more specifics to work out, though. Would he pair certain teams against each other? Would the teams even be publicly declared or would that be one of the aspects of the month itself? He knew he would have to track the different detection and anti-detection devices and attempts somehow. He also knew that a reminder of what is allowed and not allowed due to Mi6 company privacy policies would have to be drafted and sent. This month was to let his Department have some fun and let their brains run wild. He had to fight for this every year, the last thing he needed was a legitimate HR complaint. 

Hrm… He wondered if maybe the review of the rules would be something Moneypenny or Tanner himself would have fun with. They both were sarcastic to a fault and no one knew the specifics of how the organization ran and was supposed to run better than those two did; even Mallory knew to defer to them. The white team team of referees could be expanded this year. Tanner was always on the oversight committee, and this year Q was also going to bring onboard Moneypenny, the Internal IT director, and the Internal Security Director. His current task was to finish the inner workings of the challenge that still needed attention before the white team review, which was scheduled for the next week. This would still provide time for changes in the rules as well as infrastructure to occur before April 1st and the mayhem was let loose.

Q could tell that Bond had returned to the present when the music was changed from Bond’s latest playlist to “Eye of the Tiger”. Q was proud of the fact that no one outside the White Hat team knew the theme this year’s competition. Bond did not know what in particular Q was working on but he knew why it was being worked on and was just as excited as everyone else to see this year unfold; hence the ridiculous music. Q did not expect it to stop anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sing of the Chapter was Ed Sheeran's "Castle on the Hill".
> 
> Thanks for the kudos and comments, they make my day:)

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> Feel free to stop by and say hi over at tumblr at amarulasmile.


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